Because the U.S. Air Pressure retires the Boeing E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning & Management System, we bid farewell to a cornerstone of airborne surveillance — and certainly one of Boeing’s biggest software program engineering triumphs.
Greater than a radar dome on a 707 airframe, AWACS revolutionized air battle administration — fusing knowledge and lengthening battlespace consciousness, all earlier than the arrival of AI and cloud computing.
And it was Boeing software program engineers who constructed the digital spine that turned radar returns into actionable intelligence. They pioneered real-time knowledge fusion, observe administration and risk prioritization — writing resilient code that distinguished pal from foe, maintaining the peace as a lot as managing conflicts.
As we shift from AWACS to newer airborne platforms and satellite tv for pc surveillance, it’s time to honor the unsung engineers who coded its soul. Their work laid the muse for as we speak’s fashionable airborne and space-based surveillance networks.
To those that toiled countless days and nights for years, engineering tens of millions of strains of code: Thanks. You didn’t simply write software program — you constructed an enduring structure for contemporary air energy.
Michael Burkhalter, Colonel, United States Air Pressure (retired), Bellevue
